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Federal Pay ahead of Private Sector

The interesting part is that it shows that federal workers in many occupations make more than in the private sector, which goes against the conventional wisdom of government employees making less but getting much better benefits/stability.

At least I can take comfort in knowing that Research Scientists in Computer Science still make more in the private sector.

Comment

It's interesting that that is a news story in USA today. As it contains no new information. It is a subject that came up months ago with the Cato Institute's report in august of 09.

The idea that government sector jobs are making making money hand over fist above their private sector counterparts has been wildly misinformed. There are many other factors that come into play to account for the differences shown.

One notable factor that you mentioned is federal employees in blue collar jobs have better benefits. The Cato study for that analysis added the value of benefits those employees received to the total salaries of the jobs when making the averages. Those benefits are not an added perk on top of higher pay as many 'news' agencies have reported. The Cato study actual shows lower wages but the benefits do add up to a higher average payout per employee.

All the comparison between the public and private sector is thrown completely out with window if you compare CEO positions. The Highest paid CEO makes nearly 500 times the highest position in the US government(president).

So Maybe the feds just do a better job of distributing pay and not soaking their blue collar workers to pay for their CEO's.

Comment

Yeah, i'm trying to find one of those $72,000 chemistry jobs, much less the $98,000 dolalr ones. I wonder where they get their data. I've been working for 25 years and haven't reached the private wage yet. You see ads in the paper locally that advertise degreed chemists at $ 12 -$ 15 and hour. That's for 4+ years of difficult college work to graduate. Pretty sad, in a lot of cities the temporary services have ruined a lot of career paths.

One notable factor that you mentioned is federal employees in blue collar jobs have better benefits. The Cato study for that analysis added the value of benefits those employees received to the total salaries of the jobs when making the averages. Those benefits are not an added perk on top of higher pay as many 'news' agencies have reported. The Cato study actual shows lower wages but the benefits do add up to a higher average payout per employee.

This analysis excluded benefits, and included only cash compensation. The average estimate of the benefit value was that the federal benefits were worth another $40,785, and in the private sector were worth only $9,882.

All the comparison between the public and private sector is thrown completely out with window if you compare CEO positions. The Highest paid CEO makes nearly 500 times the highest position in the US government(president).

I don't think the compensation of one individual, or even a group of top executives really matters. The earning power of a former president is pretty darn high, so the $1,600,000 he makes in a term is small potatoes compared to what he'll make in the several years afterwards.

So Maybe the feds just do a better job of distributing pay and not soaking their blue collar workers to pay for their CEO's.

There are overcompensated CEOs, but that has nothing to do with the value of labor. If the government is paying more than the private sector, it means were all overpaying via taxes. One could argue that the private sector is underpaying, but it (for the moment) is still larger and sets the market rate.

Comment

My only thoughts on this subject are that big employers are often very wasteful. When I worked for NYTel, motor vehicle repairs contracted out were often substandard. When I worked as a mechanic there, I complained when recently repaired vehicles were found to be defective. The company rarely went after the contractor, so we paid to have the job done more than once. Part of the reason in my opinion was kickbacks and fraud.

Smaller companies must run a tighter ship or suffer, big employers like the government can and do absorb ineffiency and waste. I still remember when President Obama was campaigning, how he was going to go over the budget with a scalpel. Last time I saw that happen was in the movie "Dave", nothing but fiction.

My only thoughts on this subject are that big employers are often very wasteful. When I worked for NYTel, motor vehicle repairs contracted out were often substandard. When I worked as a mechanic there, I complained when recently repaired vehicles were found to be defective. The company rarelywentafterthecontractor, so we paid to have the job done more than once. Part of the reason in my opinion was kickbacks and fraud.

Smaller companies must run a tighter ship or suffer, big employers like the government can and do absorb ineffiency and waste. I still remember when President Obama was campaigning, how he was going to go over the budget with a scalpel. Last time I saw that happen was in the movie "Dave", nothing but fiction.

Smaller companies must run a tighter ship or suffer, big employers like the government can and do absorb ineffiency and waste. I still remember when President Obama was campaigning, how he was going to go over the budget with a scalpel. Last time I saw that happen was in the movie "Dave", nothing but fiction.

The reason the govt can "absorb ineffiency" is because they are playing with someone elses money..........mine and yours! Well heck I sure could be wasteful if I was spending money that seemingly had no end in site.